Horde
Horde is a new mode of arcade style combat exclusive to Gears of War 2. Up to five players can join together to fight against waves of increasingly difficult Locust horde enemies. At the beginning of each wave, enemies spawn from various points of the map. Your team needs to clear the map of all the enemies in order to progress to the next wave. When the last enemy is killed, fallen players respawn and begin fighting again in the next wave. Each successive wave is more difficult than the last, so it is essential that players work together and form strategies to avoid being overwhelmed. Players will remain in their current position when each wave ends, so be sure to take note of where you and the other players are before the next enemy onrush begins. There are wide variety of enemies that you can face in Horde, but larger enemies such as the Brumak, Corpser, and Reaver do not appear in Horde. The ammo in certain weapons refreshes at the beginning of each wave. Ammo containers located throughout the map also refresh, but players should take caution its easy to become separated from your team once the enemy begins attacking. If all players are killed in the same wave, the game ends. There are 50 waves of horde in total. Every 10 waves starting from 11 the horde grows stronger, the chart shows how strong the locust are at certain levels. 11-20: 1.0 accuracy 2.0 strength 1.0 damage 21-30: 2.0 accuracy 2.0 strength 1.0 damage 31-40: 2.0 accuracy 2.0 strength 2.0 damage 41-50: 2.5 accuracy 2.5 strength 2.5 damage Enemies A list of all the enemies that apppear in horde. *Beast Rider *Bloodmounts *Bolter *Boomer *Butcher Boomer *Cyclops *Drone *Flame Boomer *Flame Grenadier *Grenadier *Grenadier Elite *Grinder *Hammerhead Drones *Kantus *Mauler *Sniper *Theron Guard *Theron Sentinel *Tickers *Wretches *Sires Tips *The best tactic to beat any wave is to go in Co-op and ALWAYS stick together. Stay under cover at all times, even in Casual. *To beat harder waves such as 10, 20, 30, and 50, go into Hail and hide in the train opposite the stairs. Use your shotgun when larger enemies come near, use your pistol or a sniper on farther enemies, and Lancer or Hammerburst on close-by or midrange Drones and other weaker enemies. Let the Tickers kill themselves and beat down the Wretches. *Use the Maulers shields to block entry to your camping area, put them facing to where you take cover, so that Drones don't knock the shields down. (NOTE: This shield glitch has been fixed in Title Update 2) *The multiplayer map Security is favored to use without the above glitches. * A fun trick is using shields and placing them backwards the locust are to dumb to pick them up and can't kick them down meaning they are stuck (NOTE: This shield glitch has been fixed in Title Update 2) *Be aware of horde spawn points - enemies will not spawn if a player is standing too close. Having one player hold back is invaluable to keeping your camping spot safe. For example, a player staying near the bottom of either set of stairs in Day One will prevent the horde from spawning behind your team if they are fighting up on the fire escape walkway. * On certain symmetrical maps, including River and Day One, it may be best to split the team in two groups to hold both buildings. This will prevent the horde from attacking full force on one location. This is important in later stages, when a single boomshot can wipe out 4 or 5 players that are clustered together. *The boom shield is your best friend, always keep at least one or two handy. If you must run out of your camp area to pick up ammo, take a shield with you. If there are a few elusive enemies near the end of a wave, take a shield before going out to hunt them down - they will most likely descend upon you all at once. When not in use by a player, use the shield(s) to block the entrance to your camp. Make sure you pick them up and plant them as soon as a new wave starts or they will disappear within 30 seconds. Best map areas to fight the Horde alone or in a group on regular and higher difficulties (NOTE: These strategies won't always work out to be grub-resistant but It is advised that once you are at the location you stay put until the wave ends or your buddy is covering your back. Boomshields will be needed) *Day One: Go the blue building (the arcade) and hide behind the cover at the top of the stairs, let the bigger locust come to you and kill the smaller ones far away with a Longshot or Torque Bow. Alternatively the opposite building is an equally good spot to camp as the Hammer of Dawn and Mortar spawn there. It is advised when playing with 4-5 players to split into seperate teams and take control of both locations. Both offer easy access to the ammo boxes which spawn on the street below. Bear in mind that a Boom Shield spawns inside the arcade (the blue building). *Pavilion: Go to the boomshield spawn and set it up facing you at the entrance of the tunnel. This position is excellent as it gives players easy access to a Boom Shield and the large ammo box, which respawns quicker than on other maps (due to there being only one large ammo box on this map). *Avalanche: Go to the upper level infront of the avalanche zone, plant boomshields facing you at the bottom of the stairs at both ends on higher difficulties. The Mulcer and Mortar spawn atop this building while there is also a large ammo box below. This position offers an excellent view of most of the map. *River: Either one of the houses is the best place for height and viewing. As the upstiars is fairly open to enemy fire from multiple directions it is advised that players place their Boom Shields downstairs blocking the main door to the house AND at the bottem of the stairs. This gives players some space to manoeuvre - the player upstairs can fall back down stairs if they need to and players guarding the door downstairs can fall back upstairs if they need to. If playing with a 5 person team, it is advisible both houses are controlled, with two players taking a position upstairs in both houses on sniper duty. The third player should remain on the bridge with the Mortar with the snipers calling out enemy positions from their vantage point. The remaining two players should guard the doors of their respective house and provide medical and fire support to the player on the bridge. It is also advisible that in later waves the player on the bridge set up Boom Shields (when available) at either end of the bridge next to the sandbags to avoid being blindsided. *Blood Drive: In one of the rooms at either side of the map at the top of the stairs, plant a boomsheild facing you so bigger locust can't get by. The disadvantage of this is that ammo supplies are quite far away. Always resupply before the round ends. If you can secure enough Boom Shields it is advisible to take control of the entire side of the map, placing shields at the bottom of the stairs and at the door leading to the grenade room. Be wary of the enemy spawning upstairs in your start position though. It's usually a good idea to set a grenade mine there. *Hail: Go to one of the train carts an jump in so they can't get you or go to the bridge and pick off far enemies with a sniper rifle and close enemies with a shotgun, frag grenades can also be planted at the bottom of either stair entrances. Another good spot is found by going up the stairs at the end of the map. When you have climbed the stairs, stay on the bridge and turn to your left. This is a good sniper spot. Plant frags and Boom Shields near strategic points at both passages for a safety buffer. *Gridlock: Go to the little house-like building where theres only two side entrances, plant boom shields at the bottom of the stairs. Equally the structure where the Sniper Rifle spawns is also a decent camping spot. When playing with 4-5 person teams it is advisible to control at least two of these said positions to maximise your field of fire. All positions are elevated so are ideal for sniping. *Canals: go any of the bridges connecting the two sides and plant boomshields at either end. *Ruins: The bridge where the Scorcher Flamethrower spawns is possibly the best place to camp as it is relatively close to the ammo boxes. Use Boom Shields to block the ends of the bridge. Be aware that the middle of the bridge (right where the Flamethrower spawns) is open to fire from many directions though although equally it is excellent for sniping too. *Jacinto (map): Go to the King Raven LZ and camp out there, when a Mauler comes try and set his shieild up so they can only go in one direction. Once a grinder appears take his mulcher and go to the very end of the LZ behind a brick, set camp there. Be aware that you are vulnerable from fire from your start positions though. Alternatively another camping position is in the towers where the grenades spawn. This allows for players to split up into smaller teams. Use Boom Shields to block the stiars. Beware though, that Bloodmounts can still vault over the sandbag wall, so it is advisable to place extra Boom Shields further up at the top next to the concrete block structure. There is also another set of stairs which lead down into the garden so you can retreat if you become overwhelmed. This escape path is one-way though - you can escape FROM the tower area into the garden, but cannot access the tower from the garden. *Flood: Gather all the ammo you need and head to the broken bridge/road where the mortar spawns and hide behind the car or use your mortar. Set grenades at the start of the road so bigger enemies get weakend or killed depending on how many grenades there is. Once a Boom Shield becomes available, use it to block off access to this area from the two tunnels. *Underhill: There are two possible locations to camp on this map. The first is up the bridge where the Mortar and Mulcher spawn, although it is quite open to enemy fire from below. Access to this area is through a duel-carriage way which in itself is quite wide so you would need several Boom Shields to block it off completely. Alternatively, the garage downstairs where the Scorcher Flamethrower spawns is excellent for camping too. It has one door which is easily blocked with one Boom Shield, is direct opposite an ammo box and offers two windows on either side to fire out of too. The garage door (which leads outside to the bridge) can also be controlled from the inside, so you're unlikely to get ambushed from behind as long as you remember to close it inbetween waves (it opens up on occasions between waves). *Security: The obvious place to camp on this map is where area where the Mulcher/Mortar spawns. You can control the laser defence grids from there and the grenade spawn points are very close. Always remember to have one team mate stay behind inside when you leave to co,lect supplies incase you get lock out. The only other control panel for the laser grid is directly opposite inside the building. The ammo boxes are also relatively close. *Subway: Arguably the best place to camp, is the area behind the main structure upstairs on the surface where the Torque Bow spawns. Access is limited, so there is no chance of getting blindsided and you can block it using a single Boom Shield, while the little concrete blocks give you plenty of cover. The disadvantage is that the nearest ammo box is positioned in the direction of where the enemy will approach from (by the abandoned vehicles). *Fuel Station: Arguably the best place is atop the fuel station where the Scorcher Flamethrower spawns. It can only be accessed via the elevator and the stairs at the back. Use a Boom Shield to block off the stairs and the entire roof offers an excellent view of virtually the entire map and is perfect for sniping. The use of the lift is limited as it cannot be recalled from another floor - if you are downstairs and the lift is upstairs you cannot recall it down to you and vice-versa. *Stasis: There are two possible locations to camp on this map. The first is atop the walkway/bridge structure in the main chamber where the Boom Shot/Mulcher spawns. It gives players a good view of the main chamber, but is equally very open to enemy fire. Alternatively one of the start positions is also good. One start position has an ammo box spawn right next to it so this is definately the preferable one to go for. Use Boom Shields to block off both stairwells to restrict access and fire through the glass window into the main chamber. The view is not as good, but equally enemy fire is restricted as well. Trivia * The amount of the enemies killed can be as high as 856+, on casual. The number of enemies increases based on the difficulty, meaning that insane has well over 1000. * Call of Duty: World at War's "Nazi Zombies" mode may have been a response to Horde Mode. * Most enemies's face can be seen when being picked up as a meatshield: Theron Guard, Bolter, Drone variants,Flame Grenadier( His helmet and his immulison tank will fall off which will reveal him to be a Grenadier Elite) and other locust units. Notes Some weapons will regenerate ammo to a certain point such as: *Lancer: up to 350 *Shotgun: up to 32 *Snub Pistol: up to 98 *Hammerburts: up to 198 *Boltok: up to 30 *Frag Grenade: up to 2 And others Category:Multiplayer